40th anniversary of historic strike

FORTY years ago last week, 1, 500 Filipino farm workers went on strike in Delano, California and made history, inspiring the formation of the United Farm Workers Union and causing sweeping changes in US farm labor laws. The strike also led to the formation of the first national organization advocating for the political empowerment of the
Filipino community.

But perhaps because there are hardly any Filipino farm workers left and the event is not significant to the mostly Mexican farm workers union, the historic event was not celebrated.

On September 8, 1965, Filipino farm workers in Delano met at the Filipino Community Hall and voted to call a strike against the Delano grape growers. Led by Larry Itliong, Philip Vera-Cruz and Pete Velasco, the Filipino workers, who had organized themselves as the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) AFL-CIO, believed that the time for a strike was right.

The Filipino farm workers were protesting the gross disparity in salaries between what the growers were paying them ($1.10 per hour) and what they were paying the "braceros," who were brought in from Mexico by California growers to work the fields for a limited period ($1.40 per hour) as base pay.

After the vote at the Filipino Community Hall, the Filipino farm workers went out into the fields and called on their kababayans (compatriots) to go out on strike. Larry Itliong, an articulate orator who spoke nine Philippine dialects, was the most persuasive. He knew many of the workers personally as he had organized the Filipino Farm Labor Union in 1956 and had been a labor organizer since he landed in California in 1929 from San Nicolas, Pangasinan.

Before the Delano vote in September, Larry Itliong and Pete Velasco had organized the Filipino grape pickers in Coachella Valley, south of Delano, to also protest the disparity in pay with the "braceros." On May 3, 1965, their AWOC group called a strike which was joined by 1, 000 mostly Filipino farm workers.

After a week of the strike, seven local vineyards in Coachella Valley agreed to raise the wages of the farm workers to equal what was paid to the "braceros" although no formal contract was signed between the AWOC and the growers.

As the seasonal labor moved from Coachella to Delano, many of the farm workers demanded that the Delano growers provide them with the same raise agreed to by the Coachella growers. But the Delano growers would not go along with their demands, setting the stage for the September 8 vote on the strike.

Five days after the Delano strike was called, the growers began to get scab Mexican labor to replace the Filipino farm workers. Unlike the Coachella growers, the Delano growers were taking a hard line against the strikers.

In order for the strike to succeed, Itliong needed the support of the Mexican workers. "That's when I went to see Cesar and asked him to help me," Itliong told a reporter.

Cesar Chavez, the head of the mostly Mexican National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), had been organizing Mexican farm workers in California and throughout the southwest. But when Chavez heard about the Filipino-led strike, he had misgivings as he thought the strike was at least three years premature.

"Our worry was that the Filipinos would abandon the strike," explained NFWA co-founder Dolores Huerta. "Some of them were beaten up by the growers (who) would shut off the gas and the lights and the water in the labor camps."

A united front between the Filipinos and the Mexicans would not be easy as many Mexicans refused to be in the same picket lines as the Filipinos. Growers had historically used Filipinos to break Mexican-led strikes and vice-versa.

"For 80 years prior to 1965, every organizing attempt had been defeated, every strike had been crushed, the only law they knew was the law of the jungle and abuse and contempt and violence against farm workers was commonplace," observed Marc Grossman, a Sacramento political consultant.

"Larry and Cesar's great contribution was they crossed racial barriers," Grossman said.

Eight days after the Filipinos voted for the strike, the Mexican workers attended a meeting at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Delano called by Chavez on September 16, 1965. They voted unanimously to join the strike.

News of the Filipino farm workers' strike reached San Francisco and spurred Filipino community leaders in the Bay Area, led by Emile Heredia and Alex Esclamado, to set up food caravans to bring canned goods to Delano to support their kababayans in the picket lines.

The alliance between the Filipino farm workers led by Itliong and the Filipino professionals led by Heredia and Esclamado brought about the formation of the Filipino American Political Association (FAPA) in 1966. In 1970, when Itliong was national president, FAPA had active chapters in 30 cities throughout the US.

While Itliong was forging a union with other Filipinos, he was also doing the same on the farm worker front. In 1966, the Filipino AWOC of Itliong and the NFWA of Chavez merged to form the United Farm Workers of America (UFWA), AFL-CIO with Chavez as Executive Director and Itliong second in command. First Vice President was Dolores Huerta, Second Vice President was Philip Vera-Cruz, and Third Vice President was Andy Imutan with Pete Velasco as Secretary-Treasurer of the union.

The key to winning the strike was mobilizing a nationwide boycott of Delano grapes. The success of the grape boycott forced the growers to give in to the demands of the farm workers union in 1970. "We got wage increases, a medical plan for farm workers, we set up five clinics, a day care center and a school," Dolores Huerta announced.

The UFW also set up the Pablo Agbayani Village in Delano for retired farm workers. It was named after a Filipino farm worker who died while picketing during the strike.

Alex Fabros, a PhD candidate at UC Santa Barbara, believes the merger between the AWOC and the NFWA was "devastating for the Filipinos who participated in the UFW."

"Filipinos were marginalized and never given true power within the union. Filipinos lost seniority, lost jobs, lost money. Although they were in very prominent positions within the UFW, they were not in the critical decision-making slots," Fabros observed.

With his influence within the union diminished, Itliong resigned from the UFW in 1971 criticizing the "intellectuals" surrounding Chavez who, he believed, did not relate to the thinking of the farm workers. "My lone voice in policy making is but a feeble voice," he said.

Itliong died in 1977, at age 63, leaving a wife and 7 kids. At his funeral, Chavez eulogized him as "a true pioneer in the farm workers movement."

But Fred Cordova, a past president of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), believes he should be considered more than just a pioneer.

"I'd like to see his grave site included as a national shrine and the name Larry Itliong mentioned in the same breath as Cesar Chavez in ethnic studies courses. His impact on the Filipino American experience is unsurpassed," Cordova said.

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